Thursday, February 18, 2016

USA vs World - NBC ANW7 Special - Part 2

Thanks everyone for being patient! I've been working hard on a few of
projects that I'm planning on unveiling soon™ and I procrastinated in
taking time away from that to post this blog! Without further ado I'm
back to blogging about this year's American Ninja Warrior 7 Special -
USA vs. World special that aired on Sunday, January 31, 2016 on NBC.
I'm happy to report that many of the things that made me RAGE in last year's special
has actually been addressed! Not all.. but it seems the major issues
that TBS officially protested last year were fixed for this year. A few
stupid things remain but I'll point them out as I do the blog.

He's a "top" gymnast because in reality.. no one is not "top" anything on ANW lol

And yes it IS an accomplishment to do an iron cross. Though he has to tuck in his butt a little but that's totally nitpicking.

And we are back!

You know.. I'm really happy NBC hasn't decided to do the evil Japan snapshot like they did the past couple of years. Seriously.. it's NICE to see them that yes they ACTUALLY watched and cheered people on like normal competitors do.

OMG they didn't call it Mount Midoriyama! YAY! For those of you at home, the Japanese call the course "The Steel Castle". Oh and Comcast owns this footage.. it's G4/M9 footage.

This however is not.. this is Sasuke 31's Third Stage. In fact I was in attendance for that. This is called the Sidewinder R サイドワインダー・R. As for the footage itself, I did ask after I did the podcast and TBS did give them clips of all the Japan competitors from Sasuke 31. First time legit! ♥

Again I'm ignoring the commentary since I was told that's not exactly what was said. Btw Kong repping the ANW shirt he got as a gift from an American competitor (my apologies I forgot which one).

So yeah.. they go to (yet) another fluff piece and Matt says he's "highly regarded among Ninjas around the world".. however.. they do NOTHING to explain WHY he is. They literally stop short in saying he's the current Sasuke champion.

Lemme fix that for you - 10-Time Ninja Warrior Veteran (He's been around since ANC1) and Sasuke 27 Veteran

They only note Morimoto being the first person ever to clear ANW's Third Stage. (No one had done it to that point)

First man to ever clear the Crazy Cliffhanger in competition - Sasuke 29.

And Drew Dreschel ドリュー・ドレッシェル knows a thing or two since he was in attendance for a scene that NBC has.. but didn't use in this special.

THIS one.. THIS is the footage NBC had but didn't use..

NBC wouldn't be caught dead sharing the spotlight with the reigning Sasuke Champion. ESPECIALLY after outright robbing them last year of the chance to go up against Teams USA and Europe on that Final.

They'd rather just say that he has great potential for a college kid.. Don't even get me started on what was translated.. it wasn't even close.

Anyway.. back from raging.. Yuusuke sprinting across with his short legs

and just barely gets to the landing platform

See? Everyone knew he's the Sasuke Champ. LOL In fact everyone called him that on the lot in Vegas.

Okay.. this is a d*ck move by NBC saying that Morimoto can't blame his height for his failure. All you have to do is compare the trampoline from a couple days before
and you see the pitch difference so to randomly put this on there after
Morimoto failed to justify it is a total d*ck move.

Completely uncalled for especially since Morimoto didn't blame his height. There's a reason why they did it ONLY to Morimoto when much taller competitors (including Team USA) ALSO failed the SAME obstacle the SAME way. This was just trolling on NBC's part and it was glaringly obvious. This made me sick. Their disdain for Japan is so blatant. Height shaming was totally unnecessary.

Back to the show with our favorite Dual citizen

He legit lives in England

and apparently got into marathoning

On the Propeller Bar

Reminder of the fact that he's Vegan but NBC isn't promoting that this year apparently.

Silk Slider clear

Waiting in anticipation if he can clear just like Tim did

and he does

Sonic Curve

Flying through the course

much faster than Tim at this exact point

but missed the wall on his first try

Clear on the 2nd try

Drew up next watching

Coin Flip

Trampoline into the Jumping Bars

no problems

Taking his time to make sure he doesn't Champion it.

caught it with ease

I like the dual timers. Top is yours and bottom is the other run to beat but since he's first in his heat then the time will be his for Drew's to beat.

And notice the timer turns green as that number is now replaced as the bottom number for Drew to beat.

Europe celebrates the first clear of the First stage after Three heats!

8 comments:

Wow bad move by NBC on height shaming Morimoto and possibly the majority of Japanese people. Seriously, will NBC ever get sued by TBS for their treatment of the Japanese??? They make them look like total n00bz in 2014, and make fun of their height in 2016. Come on TBS, do something!

How is it height shaming? Acknowledging that someone's size can have an effect on their performance isn't height shaming at all. Where's the ire about them repeating over and over and over again how Kacy is only five feet tall? What about when they comment on taller competitors?

The exact words on the broadcast: "Well with his size, he really needs to jump deep into the chute so his arms and legs can reach the walls. He just didn't get far enough in to have a chance. Well for perspective, this is Dustin McKinney. He's only 5'2", two inches shorter than Morimoto, but look at him land the Jumping Spider when he ran Stage 1 in the regular season. So it is possible for the shorter guys, but you have to have great technique."

The word "shaming" is thrown around so often I'm not sure the people using it even know what it means anymore. What's shameful about mentioning a person's height, particularly when they say someone that size (or smaller) can still complete the obstacle?

The Final with Morimoto and Ian Dory came at the end of the competition. I'll get to that when I get to the last blog.

Gamer if you don't see how it is shaming to do that ONLY to the last person and not the other 6 that fell that were much taller then there is nothing I can do for you. There was something wrong with the placement of the mat from 2 nights before. To say that he failed it and insinuate that it "wasn't his height" (because that was the reason why they failed obstacles before - and went out of their way to say it in previous shows) as a justification for screwing up the pitch of the obstacle was a d*ck move. Why didn't they bring that up for when Isaaac fell? Surely he had better technique... right? Morimoto has horrible technique.. right? They bothered to wait until Morimoto whom they did everything to ridicule because he was someone they wanted to cut down and shame. God forbid they had to share the spotlight with a champ of a show they refuse to show on American television. The trampoline was not placed the same way so to insinuate that "oh it's not his height we had someone shorter pass this "exact" obstacle before.. it's just that he sucks.. look.. see? It's the same obstacle.. don't blame us.. is height shaming. It's amazing I even have to explain that.

"The trampoline was not placed the same way so to insinuate that "oh it's not his height we had someone shorter pass this "exact" obstacle before.. it's just that he sucks.. look.. see? It's the same obstacle.. don't blame us.. is height shaming.

I'm afraid I still don't understand. Even in your above summary, the failure is blamed not on Yusuke's height but rather his technique. Are you saying it's height shaming because they mentioned his height while denying it was relevant to his success or failure? And if it's just the mention of height that makes it shaming, surely they were shaming Dustin too? And what about Kacy, who failed in 2014 BECAUSE of her height?

If you're upset that they blamed Yusuke's technique rather than the obstacle's orientation, that's fine. I agree that it's wrong to belittle a competitor's skill when the blame actually lies with whoever set up the course, and the NBC team was at fault in ignoring that as the true source of the competitors' failures. But THAT'S what you should be angry about, not that they mentioned the same attribute they also bring up with 75% of the other runners. And to be fair, when was the last time you heard any commentator, American or Japanese, blame an obstacle?

Again, I'm completely lost here, so I'll try to simplify the issue to a single question. Among Kacy, Yusuke, and Dustin, one failed because of her height, one failed regardless of his height, and one passed regardless of his height. The commentators mentioned the runner's height in all three cases. Which cases were height shaming, which weren't, and why?

Height had nothing to do with 6 people failing this particular obstacle. NBC took the time to shame him in saying that HE failed because he sucked and he shouldn't complain about his height because Dustin did it. Yuusuke never blamed his height and it wasn't even a factor for the others that failed it (including the Americans). It literally came out of left field. They completely ignored the fact that the obstacle was changed and it affected ALL of them. To single out Morimoto and say he failed because he sucked when NOT pointing out that everyone else who was taller than him also failed THEN bringing up Dustin who was shorter and passed was a way to throw Morimoto under the bus and justify to the audience that "see? don't blame us.. we didn't screw up here".

Kacy's situation was different and she didn't fail because of her height. The jumping spider is already difficult to begin with and even Luci who passed it (and is the same height..) in Sasuke in a much harder Jumping Spider (it was the furthest away). Crap happens and that's the allure of watching a show like Sasuke and ANW.

The whole point was that the two angles were not the same automatically discounting the "equal" of the argument that NBC was trying to make. They failed since it was not the same obstacle and others including 6 others failed it. They were just petty since they were yelled at in the past for large obstacles in ANW that caused shorter people to fail last year. This year they tried to curb that argument but instead looked petty because the playing field was not equal.

As for your assertion that we never blame obstacles in Sasuke.. you apparently don't watch the show or read my blog. 28-31 was littered with obstacle problems and were called out on it. As for call outs from the announcers.. you forget the "Grinding" ring that took out Nagano when he should have passed it if it wasn't that they effed up that obstacle.